Editorial | PCOA can nudge body-worn cameras

It is not enough for the Police Civilian Oversight Authority (PCOA) to merely agree that the police’s use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) would help to provide “objective evidence” when cops are involved in disputed situations, then wait quietly, and seemingly interminably, for their deployment.

The PCOA can request, and share with the public, specific timelines for the full roll-out of BWCs, and propose that those that the police now have are used in planned operations, when a disproportionately high number of shooting deaths by the police take place.

This approach need not lead to a contentious relationship with the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), similar to what the JCF now has with its other oversight body, the Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM), and human rights groups, if that is the PCOA’s fear.

The authority is already expert at calibrating its language and at exercising its powers in such a fashion to allow it to maintain good relations with, and the good will of, the police. This performance of the PCOA is among the reasons why we previously suggested that it is suited to begin a conversation on a reset of relations between the JCF with oversight bodies, State and NGOs, leading to a consensus on what oversight of the police should look like, and how it is to be enforced.

REGULATORY BODIES

There are three government regulatory/oversight bodies in Jamaica. They include the constitutionally mandated Police Services Commission (PSC), which is responsible for the employment and disciplinary aspects of the JCF.

Then there is INDECOM, a statutory body that reports to Parliament. It investigates complaints of abuse against the security forces, including all cases of shooting by the police.

The PCOA’s job, on the other hand, is to monitor the implementation of policy by the JCF and its auxiliaries, monitor the force’s performance to ensure that they fall within “internationally accepted standards of policing, and to “perform such other functions as may be necessary for promoting the efficiency of the force”.

INDECOM and human rights groups have raised concerns over an upward spiral in police homicides. There have been nearly 100 so far this year, compared to 35 for the first quarter of 2024.

In none of the fatal shooting incidents by the police, or the security forces in general (189 in 2024, an increase of 22 per cent on the previous year) were body-worn cameras deployed. The police were responsible for 95 per cent of all shooting deaths by the security forces.

The constabulary has argued that its killings have to be seen in the context of Jamaica’s high rate of violent crime (over 1,000 murders annually) and a willingness of hardened criminals to engage cops in gunfights. Indeed, earlier this year, Police Commissioner Kevin Blake advised the rights group, Jamaicans for Justice, to direct the concerns about killings by the police to the criminals who shoot at them.

IN FAVOUR

Dr Blake and his high command insist that the JCF is in favour of using BWCs, for which it has been implementing the technological backbone for the system, without which the system wouldn’t be sustainable. This sentiment is what appears to have been echoed by the PCOA’s CEO, OTarah Byfield-Nugent.

“It makes no sense to have them (the police) wearing them (BWCs) and don’t have the storage capacity, storage infrastructure, the policy as to how it should be instituted, and how it should be operated,” she told The Gleaner. “All those things have to be in place before we now move to next steps.”

That, on its face, is a reasonable argument. But there are a number of issues to consider.

The constabulary has been talking about the introduction of body-worn cameras for over a dozen years. Pilot projects have been done. Drafting operational rules and regulations, based on global best practices, should have, or would have been expected to be, part of that process, even if the full technological framework was not in place.

Further, in February, in hitting back at its critics over the pace of implementation, the JCF said it had 750 BWCs, which it deployed to “public order policing, where body-worn cameras have already contributed to a reduction in confrontations and improved accountability in police-citizen interactions”.

This newspaper believes that it would be better policy if some of those cameras were used in planned operations, which accounted for 40 per cent of police homicides in 2024. That would help the police with better evidence of their encounters with alleged criminals when their accounts are disputed.

The PCOA can’t dictate policy to the JCF. It, however, can review the constabulary’s actions for effectiveness and to ensure that they meet global standards.

Suggesting to the JCF that, technical hurdles notwithstanding, it should use some of the body-worn cameras in planned operations, wouldn’t be overstepping the PCOA’S boundaries into policy formulation It should be seen as “promoting efficiency in the force”.

So, too, would be asking for timelines for when the technological base and other requirements will be in place to support a system-wide use of BWCs, and reporting that to the public.